Keynote by Emanuele Leonardi¹
¹ University of Bologna, Italy
TIME: Thursday, 16 July, 09:00 – 10:00
LOCATION: HS1
Session: Keynote 7
Abstract
The talk engages with the link between the social question and environmental issues in such a way that the two poles are not mutually exclusive but, rather, the latter entails an expansion of the former. In this context, Just Transition initially indicates a defensive posture in industrial relations. Subsequently, however, the encounter with Climate Justice provides it with ‘new clothes’, which enable a class-based perspective on the environmental crisis. The case-study of the GKN Factory Collective in Campi Bisenzio (Florence) will show how workers’ knowledge and sustainability can eventually merge into a horizon of ecological transition from below.
Bio
Emanuele Leonardi is Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Bologna (Italy). His research interests include: climate justice movements and their critique of carbon trading; logics of exploitation in contemporary capitalism; working-class environmentalism. He is the editor (along with Luigi Pellizzoni and Viviana Asara) of the Handbook of Critical Environmental Politics (Elgar, 2022). His latest publication is Labour Nature Value. André Gorz between Marxism and Degrowth (Verso, 2026).